


Sickness and Filipino Food

by whomstdvelyyaintntediessyes



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: M/M, Romeo's mom, So yea, on tumblr som1 headcannoned that romeo's last name was de los santos, romeo's cousins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 19:15:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18879508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whomstdvelyyaintntediessyes/pseuds/whomstdvelyyaintntediessyes
Summary: Filipino food was a comfort food for Romeo. Whenever he’d have a bad day or anything, Specs would come home to Romeo crying whilst cooking adobo with Falsettos playing in the background. When he was sick, his mother would come over from Queens with food. Except now, Romeo was sick and his mother was in the Philippines visiting her family and Specs had no idea what to do.





	Sickness and Filipino Food

**Author's Note:**

> Romeo is Filipino because of Nico de Jesus and im also Filipino and if people yell at me for this I will cry.

When Specs entered the apartment after his last class, he heard no signs of Romeo being there. 

“Ro?” He called, whist toeing off his shoes and walking down the hallway into their small living room.

He only got a quiet, muffled groan in response.

Upon reaching their sofa he found a small pile of blankets and pillows with tissues scattered around. He began picking up the tissues and grabbing paracetamol and a glass of water from their kitchenette. He didn’t need to take Romeo’s temperature to know he was sick because he had complained of headaches the day before and didn’t wake up at the time he usually did. 

Neither Romeo or Specs got sick often but when Romeo did, it was a problem for a number of reasons: He was very whiny and clingy, he also felt sad and homesick so Specs would call Romeo’s mother and she would come over from Queens with traditional Filipino food. There wasn’t any problem with that. Filipino food was delicious and Romeo’s mother was nice and always brought them flowers. But this time it was a problem because Romeo’s mother was not in Queens but in the Philippines.

“Hey Ro, baby.” He cooed, lifting some of the blankets so that he could see Romeo’s face. He whimpered quietly and shuffled forwards to bury his head in Specs’ chest.

“Ro, have you taken paracetamol yet?” He shook his head slightly so Specs made him sit up and gave him the pill and the glass of water. 

“Mmmh thankss...”

“That’s okay baby. You wanna sleep?”

“No!” Romeo looked up and pouted. His eyes were puffy and his cheeks and nose were flushed.

“Please? I’ll lie down with you for a while.”

“Noooooo! I’m not tired!” He protested, crossing his arms across his chest.

“We can watch Miss Saigon when you wake up.” Specs tried.

“...can we sleep here?” Romeo asked, gesturing to his nest of blankets and pillows.

Specs sighed and crawled underneath the blankets with his boyfriend who hummed happily and curled up, burrowing his head in Specs’ chest.

Specs wasn’t worried about getting sick from Romeo. Whenever one of them got sick and they cuddled, the other never caught the sickness too. What Specs was worried about, was how he was going to get Filipino food for Romeo. Filipino food was a comfort food for him. Whenever he’d have a bad day or anything, Specs would come home to Romeo crying whilst cooking adobo with Falsettos playing in the background. Specs had no idea what he was going to do.

 

After a while of being consumed by his thoughts, Specs heard a phone ring.

He debated his options; Romeo would be grumpy if he woke up without Specs but he would be more grumpy if he was woken up. Specs carefully moved Romeo and placed a pillow for him to cuddle instead. He then got up slowly and dashed across the room, grabbing the ringing phone and holding it up.

“Hi this is Spencer speaking.”

“Ah! Specs! How are you, anak, where’s Romeo?” Came the cheerful voice of Romeo’s mother through the speaker. She was a fairly short woman with olive skin and short, wavy, black hair and eyes that were almost identical to Romeo’s.

“Hi Mrs De Los Santos He’s sleeping right now, he’s sick.” Specs replied, glancing at the sofa where Romeo was still sleeping peacefully, drooling slightly.

“Oh no! Ah, I just called to tell him that I arrived in Manila! And his cousins wanted to see him so I was going to video call but I might call back later. But how are you, Specs?”

“I’m alright. Just trying to look after Romeo.”

“Mm he is difficult when he’s sick. Oh! Doesn’t he usually want Filipino food when he’s sick?”

“Yeah and I was just worrying about that because I don’t remember where the Filipino restaurant here is and Ro would be sad if he woke up alone.”

“Ah we can teach you. Can you make it video Specs? Halika...” Specs heard Romeo’s mother talking to other people so he switched to video call and held the phone up so his face was visible in the screen.

“Okay Specs, this is Jireh, Germaine and Dan-Dan.” The people she gestured to looked bored and seemed to be complaining and asking to return to what they were previously doing. She turned to them again, “O say hi to Romeo’s boyfriend.” After glares and complaints and rapid Filipino dialect, one of the boys spoke.

“Hi. I’m Germaine and if you hurt Romeo I will hurt you.” He wore glasses and was about as tall as Specs - which was to say, very tall - and had short black hair, light-ish skin and eyes that were similar Romeo’s.

“Uh, hi I won’t hurt him...” Specs said awkwardly.

“I’m Jireh, I’m Romeo’s cousin on his mother’s side. I’ve heard a lot about you from him. Hi.”

“Hi.” The girl had short hair that was tied up in a ponytail, it was black at the roots and brown at the tips. Her skin was olive and her eyes were also similar to Romeo’s, she also wore glasses and braces.

“Hello. I’m Dan-Dan but my real name is Dan.” 

“Hi I’m Specs and my real name is Spencer.” Dan-Dan had short, curly-ish black hair and darker skin than the other two. Once again, his eyes were the same shade and shape as Specs’ boyfriend.

“Okay!” Started Jireh - if Specs remembered correctly - “We’re teaching you to make sopas first because that’s pretty easy and good for sick people because its warm. Do you have macaroni pasta?”

 

Romeo woke up alone in his nest of blankets, cuddling a pillow instead of his boyfriend. He sniffled and sat up, wrapping a blanket around himself and embarking on his quest to find Specs. He shuffled into the kitchen where he had heard noise and sure enough, his missing boyfriend was there. He wrapped his arms around Specs’ waist from behind, startling him.

Specs was so focused on cooking the bihon noodles that he almost dropped the phone.

"Romeo!" He exclaimed, fumbling with the phone and turning around to greet his boyfriend. "How was your sleep?" 

Romeo shrugged and noticed that the screen of the phone Specs was holding displayed a video call.

"Who's that?" Romeo asked, gesturing to the phone, his voice hoarse from sleep. Specs smiled and passed the phone to Romeo, turning his attention to his precious bihon noodles that he ran to and from the grocery for so that Romeo wouldn't wake up alone.

"Romeo! Are you okay? Specs said you were sick!" Came the voice of his mother through the speakers. There was a kerfuffle and a chorus of voices asking questions and the screen turning dark until it cleared up and he was face to face with his mother and some of his cousins.

“Oh my gosh! Hi Mom! Hi Jireh! Hi Dan-Dan! Oh my gosh Germaine how are you so tall?! Kumusta kayo? I haven’t seen you guys in forever!”

“We’re great!”

“Ha you’re still short.”

“When are you coming to the Philippines?”

Came the replies of his cousins. 

“We were teaching Specs how to make pansit and stuff.” Jireh told him above the noise of people talking over each other. Upon hearing that, Romeo’s face lit up and he put down the phone on the counter and turned around to embrace Specs again. A chorus of ‘aww’s and ‘ew’s were heard from the video call, causing Specs to laugh and take the phone again.

“We’ll leave you now? Romeo call us! Your titas and titos also want to see you.”

“Ok Mom. Love you, bye.”

“Bye.” 

The screen went dark and Romeo hugged Specs again. He turned off the heat of the stovetop and carried Romeo back to the sofa.

“I love you so much. You’re the best person in the entire world!”

“Awh. Thanks baby.” Specs replied, throwing a blanket over the two of them.

 

Later, they ate the pansit while watching Miss Saigon.

“How is the, uh, pansit?” Specs asked, turning to Romeo who was mesmerised by the laptop screen.

“It’s really good! But its pronounced more like ‘pun’ than ‘pan’ with the hard ‘A’.”

“Yeah your cousins were trying to tell me that… pAHnsit.”   
Romeo laughed, “Close enough.”

“I also made other stuff but I don’t know if I’ll pronounce them right.”   
“Aww, you really are the best person ever! Just try.”

“Uhh… sopas…”

Romeo laughed again, “Sorry, sorry, it’s not SOAP ACE it’s pronounced like SOP ASS.”

“Oh. How am I pronouncing everything wrong? Isn’t it supposed to sound like the way it’s spelt.”

“Yeah. But you’re getting there.

They were silent for the rest of the musical - other than  a bit  a lot of crying at the end. Then Specs got up to put their plates in the sink and came back with another plate.

“I made puta!” He announced proudly, putting the plate down.

“Specs, I love you but,” Romeo began and then stopped in a fit of giggles, “Puta means ‘bitch’. It’s puto.”

“You’re a puta.”

“Rude.”

They both laughed again and cuddled on the sofa. Even though it was 9 o’clock, they both felt exhausted.

“Thank you Specs…” Romeo sleepily mumbled into the other’s chest.

“You’re welcome.” He replied, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead.

**Author's Note:**

> there's not. enough. spromeo. content. but writing is hard so how am i supposed to fix this


End file.
